Sustainable Farming, Permaculture, Gardening and Homesteading in Ohio

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My wife Mindy and I live on a small farm in Hudson, Ohio with our little baby girl Zoey and our little dog Jake. He’s a Chihuahua who protects the garden from deer and rabbits. We have some nice hens who lay eggs everyday and we grow and can our own vegetables and herbs. This is a little blog about our days on the farm.

We believe in sustainable farming from organic heirloom seeds and are strongly against GMO’s. We grow everything organically and let our hens free range around the garden (and sometimes the neighbors yard).

Last year we started a non-profit organization called Project Garden Sharethat helps connect individuals in need of food with people who grow gardens. If you can share some of your garden, please contact us and see how you can get involved!

I am Dan Soulsby. I was born and raised in Northeast Ohio and graduated from Kent State in 1999. I headed for the bright lights and moved to Los Angeles and a job at Disney Studios where I cast animated movies and TV series. Everyone always asked about working for Disney and I’d say on my worst day, I’m still watching cartoons.

Among the high rise buildings and Hollywood parties I dreamed of something much less glamorous, a small farm where I could start a family and grow. Most people dream the other way around I think. While in LA, I read every book on growing and farming I could find and kept container gardens on my balcony.

In 2007, Disney got rid of thousands of jobs and I was one of them. I sold my condo in Burbank and bought an old farm in Hudson, Ohio from auction. All that was left was to find a wife which I did and married Mindy in 2008. The family came in 2011 when we had a daughter and named her Zoey.

The farm was a wreck in 2007 and it took a lot of work to get it into working condition but with the help of friends and family it got up and growing.

The Soulsby Farm started the way most small farms do…. a dream to get back to the country and grow vegetables and herbs and raise chickens the way nature intended; through a partnership with the earth and a deep respect for animals. We believe in sustainable farming. Everything on the farm is grown through organic means; the farm doesn’t believe in GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) and grows only from heirloom seeds and plants. No chemicals (fertilizers, pest control, etc..) are ever used on the farm.

Jake the Farm Chihuahua

Along with Zoey, we have our little dog Jake. He’s a Chihuahua who protects the garden from deer and rabbits. We have some nice hens that lay eggs every day –and let them free range around the garden (and sometimes the neighbor’s yard) . We grow and can our own vegetables and herbs. I am the planter and Mindy is the harvester and it’s a great team. Together we make sauce and pickles and can and freeze everything we can to make it through the long Ohio winters.

Last year we started a non-profit organization called Project Garden Share

Project Garden Share is a non-profit organization established to help feed and educate individuals in need of one of the most precious resources on earth; food. In 2010, 48.8 million Americans lived in food insecure households. We wanted to do something about that.

Our program works in a few different ways to suit anyone who would like to be part of it.

1) Share your Harvest – Plant a couple extra rows of vegetables to give to local food banks. We can supply you with a list of food banks that accept fresh produce. We’ll supply you with plants or seeds.

2) Share your Land – We’ll come out and till up an area and plant a garden on your land which you would tend during the season and give the rewards to the local food bank. It doesn’t have to be enormous, even a 4’x8’ garden is a great help.

3) Share your Time – Volunteer when you have time to help tend gardens in the area that are part of the program. We currently have about an acre out back we donate to the Organization that always needs tending.

4) Share you Knowledge – If you’re a gardener who can help educate others we need you! Our goal is to educate individuals in need to learn how to grow their own garden and become more self-sufficient.

5) Share your Land, Knowledge and Time – The tri-fecta! Offer your land to individuals in need (several families have lost their homes due to foreclosure and currently reside in apartments, condos, ect.. with no land). Help these people with your know how on how to plant, grow, harvest and can a harvest.

My brother always thought it was funny when I told him my plans and followed through, I guess most people don’t actually do what they say.

Dan in his Disney Day’s with CSI’s George Eads, Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson, Dakota Fanning and “Ponch” Eric Estrada

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220 Responses

Hi!
I just read your blog about the mushrooms growing on the farm. I am an avid mushroom hunter (and grower) and can recognize at least a few of the ones you have images of (I can’t seem to be able to enlarge the pics without the page freezing up). The ones that look like hamburger buns all clustered are most likely a type of bolete (the same genus as Porcini) called a Slippery Jack. They are quite delicious if prepared properly! Of course, I would never trust a photo and would have to see them in person to positively ID them. Some of the others look like a form of Reishi, a powerful medicinal mushroom. If you would like more info, please contact me! I also have a mushroom related website http://www.themushroomhunter.com
I would be happy to take a walk around your farm and check out some shrooms (maybe a barter is at hand?).
Take care,
Don Kingdonthemushroomhunter@gmail.com

This is great!!!! I had no idea you guys had a farm!! I am looking forward to seeing you in OH this weekend….but even more, I am looking forward to reading your adventures on the farm!! Good luck with the hens and the veggie garden!

Kathleen

P.S. BTW: One of my jobs in our family garden growing up I had to help pick potatoes….WORST JOB EVER! I can still feel the dirt under my fingernails! hahaha!

Thanks for visiting my Gardening with Border collie hooligans. I was able to purchase 3.5 acres of our dairy farm from Mom before she sold the rest. Akron just hired Terry Bowden as it’s new football coach away from our local college University of North Alabama. Enjoyed reading your blog. Mary

I really enjoyed surfing your site today! I especially enjoyed your pictures with all the fall colors – just beautiful. I look forward to adding chickens to our homestead one day as well – veggies and eggs…..nothing better!

Cheers! And thank you for “liking” my site – you were my first non-relative to comment! A milestone :) I appreciate that very much :)

Hi there! Thanks for popping over to check out our experiment at homesteading! We’re not too far away from your location. Looks like you’re farther down the path and enjoying it. Hopefully that’s where we’ll find ourselves in a few years! :)

Just found your blog after you found mine. I love what you are doing and really love the no-nonsense tone in your writing and the topics you cover. You’ve got me all fired up about chickens again, and this year I think we’re really ready. It’s great to connect in this way, and I’ll be following what you write here. Best wishes!

WordPress sent me your contact info. Nice to see how many of us are on the same wavelength! I am going to follow along on your adventures. My blog is mostly “new to Alaska” adventures but I hope my aunt, living on the little farm, will do some entries. She has, after all, learned a lot of iPhone in just a few days. Best wishes, fellow small green farmers

[…] Danny and his family live on a small farm in Hudson, Ohio. He writes “We believe in sustainable farming from organic heirloom seeds and are strongly against GMO’s. We grow everything organically and let our hens free range around the garden (and sometimes the neighbors yard).” […]

Dan & Mindy~ Thank you so much for stopping by to check out my article on “Real Food” I share the importance of organic foods in my article and I’m thrilled to see that you are pro organic farming and love the idea of Project Garden Share.I hope to stop by for a visit if I’m ever in your area. Thanks once again!

Hi Dan, thanks for liking my post today. I like your site – can’t believe the photos of the snow. We are in Melbourne, Australia and it has been 35 degrees celcius the last few days, so our vegies have the opposite problem! Take care, Kate

Lovely farm & family!! We have also donated food we had surplus of to the local soup kitchen. Our daughter, now 12.5 y/o has grown up w/ the example and experience of sharing food from our land…a great foundation for building amore compassionate culture.

Thank you for visiting my blog “Eyes to Heart” and liking my post “Swan …” Your small farm is delightful and your cause just. I am very sad to see the small farmer squeezed out of production by the big conglomerates. More power to you. I hope to have a hobby farm of my own one day. … Be well … Dorothy :-)

Thanks for the like on my blog! I like your blog too and will have to explore it. I’m getting ready to plant a raised bed garden and plant some fruit trees etc., so I’ll be seeing what I can find on your blog for inspiration!

You guys are living the life I dream of! Thank you so much for inspiring and guiding all of us on our quests for the organic life! I dream of a tiny organic nook in a year or two… we shall see. Flow on, my friends!

this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. we are right there with you — the freedom of a small farm on which you can raise your family’s food — economically and ecologically — must be rediscovered and shared!
the sow’s ear, s and b dougherty

Wonderful site you have. I am excited to find that you are in Ohio. I moved here from MN last March and we are starting a garden from scratch on our .39 acre suburban lot. Also, working on building a community/school garden at St. Mark Lutheran in Brunswick, OH. Looking forward to checking back with your blog often for info!

Thanks for you “like”. Your blog is great. I’ve never thought to use the chicken manure for the compost. Of course, I’ve never really composted, until this fall when I started by compost pile. I’m going to put some of the manure on the compost. Great idea. Thanks!

Nice to meet another family living the dream. My husband and I have a garden, and berries and grapes if the chickens don’t get to them first. We make our own maple syrup, and now homemade wine. Almost self-sufficient – lol!

Thanks for liking my post on Yes You Can Can! I worked for Disney on the East coast but only for 7 years…it was great fun. But it looks like you landed on your feet in a beautiful place with an equally beautiful partner and daugher. Congrats

Wow how cool. I came to check out your site after you had visited mine. I really like what your family is doing. It is a dream of my husbands and mine to have a farm we can sustain our family with as much as possible. We try now with some chickens and a garden. Its fun and so nice to have fresh eggs and produce. I have always enjoyed a garden and animals since I was a child. Keep up the good work.

Love this blog and your farm!! My husband and I have always considered composting and you have great information on just how to do that!! So glad you stopped by our blog so I could find yours! Will be following you to see what great things are being done on Soulsby Farms!

I love what you are doing! It’s one thing to love eating organic healthful food (like I do!) and it’s another thing to be doing all the hard work on your own farm! I really appreciate organic farmers and all they do to keep healthy options available in our food supply! Thank you!

We live in a house in CT that has a lot of land, but not enough for a farm. There is, however, plenty of room for gardening and chickens at the very least. We are currently renting, so we have to wait, but we’re buying the house in a year and a half, and reading up on everything until then. My daughters are practically counting the days until chickens. And a dog. I’m so glad you visited my blog because it led me to yours!

This is fantastic! Thanks for being organic farmers and for spreading the word on sustainability! My grandparents ran a dairy farm in Wis. and I know family farming can be HARD work. But it’s such honest, conscientious work. You are the salt of the earth…

So glad you visited my Houston city blog! We lived for eight years in Cleveland Heights before coming to Houston. Love what you are doing in Northeastern Ohio, and will now send your link on to many friends. I hope they will offer you local support. All the best. You are doing great things!

Dan, thanks for visiting my blog and the “like” – it helped me follow you back to your wonderful blog. You can’t be too far from me; a few hours maybe, and we probably have the same weather (you first!) My parents bought a small farm when I was 13 and it was a great experience for me, so how lucky your daughter is to grow up on your beautiful place! Anyway, I look forward to reading more. Cheers!

Would love to know how your little one deals with foxes! But having seen a ten week old poodle pup stand on her back legs and yip till the urban fox in our garden left, maybe I know. It’s all about caring enough! Our pup wanted that fox out of there. Still I hear sad stories about urban chickies taken by foxes in our city too often, we have a big fox population here and they get fed by people and thus have very little fear of humans, some of them are almost domesticated. There is the Landshare project here which sounds very similar to yours, and in the UK we have the allotment system too, which has been going for many years now. I strongly believe in sharing and hope your work reaps a good harvest and spreads ever wider !

Firstly, thanks for liking our blog. Just had a read through a couple of your blogs… great work. We’ll be following your blog with interest.

If you would like a little more traffic to your blog, consider submitting some news or even better a guide. Visit Hometipster.com and click the Contribute Button for all the ways you can add content and drive traffic to your site.

Thanks for liking my blog! This is a great blog I’ll be following it with interest. I like how you decided what you wanted to do re: farming and then lived the dream. The idea of planting a couple of extra rows to donate to foodbanks really resonated with me too.

We have an issue in Australia (and I assume the US as well) that the fresh fruit and vegetables isn’t always the cheapest food around, and maximum calorie value for money is often found in junk food. So anything that helps people who are struggling get better nutrition is a fantastic idea.

This is awesome that you have your own farm! You have great content on the blog too. I am always looking for small farms around here (WA) to get milk, poultry and fresh veges. Some day I plan to have a small farm myself.

Thanks for stopping by our blog and “liking” my tomato garden post. My husband grew up in a place very similar complete with hogs, chickens, and a huge garden … and as an adult loves having a garden on his own. We love to share the harvest. Isn’t that the whole point. Most of us have so much…more than we need… so I really appreciate what you’re doing. It looks like a great life!

Like others, just popped in to say thank-you for ‘liking’ a recent Post on Learning from Dogs. Glad I did because first impressions are that your blog is very interesting – touches some of the same places that Jean and me have in our hearts. Best wishes, Paul

first of all, thank you for liking my Post Nothing Nurtures Like Nature on my blog:http://notinindia2012.wordpress.com
and a special thanks for bringing me here to your blog. Looks like I will enjoy exploring here for some time.

Beautiful farm, beautiful family! I love your Project Garden Share. I also love it that you went the way of sustainable living after your time at Disney and living in “the basin”. I grew up in Pasadena during the days when we could ditch school and drive to Anaheim for $6.95 tickets to get into Disneyland. Even with buying additional E tickets, it was an easy escape from the doldrums of high school. Thanks for visiting feet2earth today!

How very cool! I grew up in Huntington Beach and even worked at Disneyland for a couple summers. I’m a small urban farmer with chickens and a garden but I hope someday to have some acres out in the country. Great work!

Great blog! It’s like Farming101! I can tell I’m going to learn a lot from your efforts. We’re about to begin our own shared garden in Brookings, OR and it’s surprising how many people are ok with using chemicals. I want my own space to be chem-free, but I’m not sure if that’s possible with everyone else using them. Thank you for sharing!

Dan, you folks are my heros! I love what you’re doing and have huge admiration for your project. Keep up the stellar work and I’ll pass your praises and ideas forward!
On a side note – I worked for Disney eons ago. All I can remember was what they tried to tattoo into our brains. “Smile with your upper teeth!”
Cheers

I love your farm’s story, and that fact you use heirloom seeds! I’m doing all heriloom this year too. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! I may not be a farmer, but I like to think of myself as a ‘serious’ urban gardner. :-)

You guys are doing great work over there in Ohio. A lot of important info on your website to get out. I feel like there is a great need for educating people on our food system… so thank you for spending time doing so. Thanks for the like on my farm blog!

Hey Dan and Mindy
Just popped over to say hi and check out your blog (and say thanks for the like). Really loved reading about Project Garden Share and it looks like it’s going from strength to strength. Have added you to my blog list and will check back often. Good growing,

Wow! Your page inspires and really fills my heart. I am just starting the grocery garden and have no idea how productive it will be, but will definitely keep the idea of planting/sharing excess produce in mind. Thanks for your vision and example – awesome.

Great to see someone following their dreams. There was a big fuss in the UK a while back about deer raiding alotments. The owners kept them out by playing BBC Radio 4 – the BBC was offended, but it’s a spoken word programme, so probably the deer just thought it meant humans were around. Who cares, if it woorks and does no harm? good luck!
and thanks for liking my post.

Hi Dan. Thank you for stopping by on my blog and give a thumb up for my “a small hope will do” posting. I’ve just read the story about you, your family and your farm. Very interesting and mind blowing! Thank you for sharing your idea, thought and idealism. Congrats! I am happy for you that you have been able to follow your dreams and make them come true.. For sure I’ll follow your blog. Wishing you all the very best!

Dan and Mindy,
Thanks for checking out The Wild Six. I love it when people grow what they consume. I’m trying to do that on our tiny, TINY patch of city here in Kansas. I’ll let you know how the grape vines turn out. My 9 year old is out there reading “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” to them right now. How can you go wrong. Love the blog.

Hi Dan and Mindy. Thanks for liking my post on rhubarb. You have a lovely story and a lovely blog. My dream is to for our family to become as close to self-sustaining as possible (yeah, we want our children to be able to procreate), so I will definitely have to find some time to read more of your blog!

I found your blog through a post you liked on my blog. Looking forward to reading more! We are just bought our place, and are starting our home garden. We love growing our own food too, so will be following your blog with interest. :)

Really loving the concept of what you guys are doing. Look forward to following and figuring out what I can do with you/along similar lines. I’m a culinary student in Boulder, CO and am finding my true love is out in the dirt and educating on sustainable farming. Will look forward to learning from you guys. Thanks for all your work!

Thanks for stopping by my blog, and come back any time. I’ve browsed yours and you make it seem idyllic but as a gardener myself I know how much work it really is. Keep it up; I’ll be back from time to time to see how you’re doing.

Hi Dan – thanks for visiting my blog today and liking my post. Love what you and Mindy are doing on your farm in Hudson, OH – also envious of that kiss you’re getting from Eric Estrada in the photo above:)! Thanks for setting an example of living your dream. Pam

Thank you for dropping by my blog. I was kicking around starting a vegtable garden, but started with a raspberry bush instead. I think that, by your example, I will study and begin a vegtable garden so that I can give back to those in need!! Can’t wait to hear more about your family and the farm!

Thanks for checking out my blog! I really enjoyed looking through your site. It’s so nice to be able to grow your own food. We have a fairly short growing season but I do keep two 4×8 raised beds and must say nothing compares to fresh from the garden organic veggies! This year I added 4 blueberry bushes and 17 strawberry plants so I hope they do well.

[…] take a cue from this sustainable lifestyle. Plant your seeds right where you are. Congratulations, Dan Soulsby and thanks for your efforts … here’s wishing you and your family continued success with […]

Hi your blog is awesome and I wish you well.
Surprised that you found by blog interesting?
However will post more on the water alarm as the bits come together.
Like your tractor drove a similar Fordson as a kid in Devon many years ago.
Does it run on Tractor vapourising oil (TVO), had to start ours on petrol and then turn over to the TVO tank.
Go for it and enjoy life.

hi dan and mindy, thanks for liking my blog entry on growing green… you are actually living my dreams … keep inspiring people to live the way we should be living…(by the way, I am a corporate slave for a UK investment bank here in Singapore.. and am frequenting a lot of blogs about growing own food in the backyard, being sustainable and living in a commmunity of like minded individuals.. however, be doing it in my native land ==> the Philippines.. would you be willing to send us some of your non-GMO seeds?

Hi Dan, I’m wondering if the Project Garden Share is national? I am a novice gardener but know someone who would be so happy to share his knowledge; he already donates a few thousand pounds of his hard earned garden produce to the Food Bank of Delaware each year. Thank you for all of your interesting posts about GMOs too. I never knew they existed until I started blogging in March. Scary stuff. Also, I’m jealous that you have chickens. :)

Thanks for visiting my blog at giftsponge. It is so inspiring reading about your attitude to our environment and a health lifestyle. What a beautiful and fulfilling life you have. I have 3 children and we love camping and getting out into the bush when we can however we live in the middle of melbourne city which can get a bit kaotic!

Thanks for visiting my blog, She’s Bookin’ at arlynlawrence.wordpress.com. I enjoyed seeing your site, reading your story, and learning about Operation Garden Share. We raised five kids on 2 1/2 acres but have downsized the family (they do grow up and move away) and the homestead to a smaller suburban lot. We do still love to garden, though! Thanks for your inspiration; will look forward to reading more in the future!

Thanks for stopping by my blog! If you get a chance, take a look around the other one – Paradise Found. It looks like you have a lot more space than we do, since we’re on a residential lot – we hope to have something similar someday!!

Thank you so much for your visit. I wish you oodles of success! I live in the suburbs…my shaded yard only allows me a few plants for playing with. So I try to support our local farm stands. I also look for and try to buy only veggies from the states. We are sort of neighbors as I am in SW PA. Again all the best I hope to visit again.

Thanks for liking my post. I thought I had gotten a lot accomplished until I read about your day! Wow! And you rainbow looked like the ones we got this afternoon. Two of them after two downpours. I can feel the plants growing. I’ll have to come back to your blog to see how things are growing there.

Congratulations on your life choice. Thanks also for being the first like on my brand new blog – prairie girl on fire! We did leave the farm when I was 6 but wow – what an imprint. Never forget that time! Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting us. Love what you and your family are doing. Project Garden Share is a great community food distribution concept. This year we overplanted some veggies to donate the surplus to our community food bank. It won’t be a ton but anything does help.
Thanks for sharing!

Nice post at About The Soulsby Farm. I was checking constantly this blog and I am impressed! Extremely helpful info specifically the last part :) I care for such info a lot. I was seeking this certain info for a long time. Thank you and best of luck.

Thank you for liking my blog . Here in Atlanta, I help an 80 year old farmer work his two acrea. Currently, we need rain, and the tomato blight to flee. Great blog. Keep growing. blogthefarm.wordpress.com

I love your blog! I nominated you for the Illuminating Blogger Award. I don’t know if you accept awards, which is okay if you don’t, but just so you know, I think your posts are great, inspiring and always ‘illuminating’ –Thank you guys for sharing your lives at the “very small farm.”

Hello Dan, Mindy, Zoey & Jake,
Thank you for stopping by and liking my post on Good gardening and Good health. I wish I could have chickens and even sheep on my property. I guess I have to settle for vegetables and herbs. I’m not sure why, but my tomatoes came in earlier than they ever have before. Maybe it was the hot weather? I’m not complaining though. I could have a bumper crop this year and it’s been a long time since I had one. Last year was the pits! I am due! I’m glad your dream came true. I had the same dream but divorce dashed that hope. Still, I’m happy with my little plot. I could always make it bigger : – D

Hi Dan,
Thanks for liking my post. My husband and I must use raised beds for our house and the entire neighborhood we live in sits on top of a marble slab. Our summer garden is fading away and we have two beds we are preparing for the winter. Do you have suggestions of what I can plant and when is the best time for vegetables in N. GA? I was thinking garlic, cabbage, and potatoes but have never grown any of those plants.
Thank you and I really enjoyed hearing about your farm and non-profit.
Pris

Hello,
Thank you for revisiting my blog and liking my post “Driving me carazzzy”
Read your “About”.. wow living the big life in LA and discovering how much more rewarding and fulfilling farm life can be, luv it! You guys are amazing! Keep up the good work! :D
(P.S. Jake is such a cutie… I want him !)

Thanks for stopping by The Flourishing Tree. I love your story here, especially how you prepared for it while working and living in a completely different environment. Kudos for living your dream, and many thanks for sharing glimpses of your farm life with us! I look forward to learning gardening tips from you, and have already learned not to fear the sight of aphids.

Good day to you! What an incredible story and adventure you have! Best wishes with your continued success with Project Garden Share. Good job! (you too Jake :)) Thanks for your recent like of “How They Grow” on my site. Best regards, ~Scott